Sparling CEO named Exec of Year

Published 5:07 pm Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Sixty years ago, Sparling opened for business in Seattle as an electrical engineering firm for the marine industry. Today, thanks to the leadership of people like President and Chief Executive Officer Eric Overton, the Snohomish County Business Journal’s choice for its Executive of the Year 2008, Sparling has seen dramatic growth by expanding its horizons.

Recognizing the importance of providing owners and architects with a multidiscipline approach to consulting, design and construction projects, Sparling has become the nation’s largest specialty consulting firm offering an array of specialized services involving electrical engineering, technology consulting, audiovisual and acoustical design and architectural lighting.

“Although we deal with so much technology, this is really a people company. That’s what attracted me when Jim Duncan, who’s our chairman of the board now, asked me to come aboard,” Overton said. “I was working for Cochran Electric. Now I’ve been with Sparling for 23 years. It was smaller and different when I joined, but even then it had a great reputation. I admired the leadership and could see the business was poised to do some pretty incredible things.”

Like the company’s consulting work for its clients, Sparling’s staff has thoroughly examined and planned for its own growth as well.

“In 2004, we had a strategic retreat that focused on planning for our future growth, leadership transition and setting annual goals for accomplishing a tripling of our company’s size,” Overton said. “We believe passionately that companies need to grow or they die. No business can just stand still for very long.”

Sparling certainly has not stood still.

In 2001, it expanded by opening its second corporate office and moving five of its eight studios from Seattle to the new Lynnwood Corporate Center II. Today known as the Sparling Technology Center, it was a “smart building” project that Sparling had created together with other partners.

The center includes a Sparling-designed network of seamless communications and collaborative tools that provide video-conferencing sessions for clients and the flexibility for the company’s staff to work from any of its West Coast offices. It also delivers many of the company’s continuing education classes to employees and clients.

The year of the retreat, Sparling opened its Portland, Ore., office and last September the company announced its new San Diego office, both areas where the company already had been involved for many years.

Today, with 160 employees and annual revenue of more than $24 million, Sparling has benefitted from expanding its many skill sets by acquiring the telecommunications engineering and consulting division of W&H Pacific and merging the Seattle staff of Yantis Acoustical Design, a regional leader in creating audio-visual and acoustical consulting services.

“With our expansions we expect to reach $30 million in revenues this year, the goal we set and we will continue to search for other consulting firms that fit with our culture and open doors to new opportunities and markets,” he said.

In January, Sparling received American Council of Engineering Companies awards for the Platte Valley Medical Center in Colorado and a technology study for the Snohomish County Wireless Data Project that envisions a high-tech system for providing critical information to emergency first responders.

Always fascinated by architecture, Overton enjoys Sparling’s wide variety of projects, fom museums and hospitals to performing arts centers and corporate centers.

“There are a lot of changes in the industry, including new collaborative software tools and strategic partnerships with firms nationally and internationally,” he said. “I enjoy working with companies that live by strong values and want to put money into sustainable building designs. Our mission is really to enrich the world through the power of design,” he said.

He hopes to see developers’ building goals change to increase the life of structures, noting that in Europe there are hospitals 300 or more years old that are being renovated and expanded.

“Here, we tear our buildings down too soon. We have a lot to learn from our partners in industry across the globe,” he said.

The toughest part of his job? Finding the right people to fit the company’s innovative ways of thinking and working, what he calls “the Sparling Experience.”

“We discuss that a lot. Recruiting and retention, how to find and keep talent that fits the culture and values of Sparling, is mission critical. We have a very narrow filter for people to get through to join the company,” he said.

Sparling also likes to hire top graduates of engineering schools and then train them in the company’s culture.

“I worry about the lack of engineering students coming out of college,” he said. “It is a known fact that we aren’t graduating enough engineers to keep up with the boomers who are retiring. We have been fortunate over the years to attract some of the best in the business and keep them. Over 30 percent of uor professional staff have been with us longer than 20 years. That says a lot.”

The health-care field is one of the most fascinating for Overton.

“We hear all the time that physicians, nurses and others are too involved with paperwork and not having enough time with patients. We have been involved in developing technologies that enable caregivers to increase patient time and produce better outcomes. Technology is driving the health care field, including developing electronic medical records, telemedicine and robotics in the operating room,” Overton said.

For patients, particularly kids, we try to provide telecommunications with wireless keyboards and access to video games, the Internet and education programs while they’re immobilized in a hospital,” he said.

Along with growing and managing the company, Overton pays attention to Sparling’s role in the communities it serves.

“We’ve always been involved outside our company, trying to be a civic leader and working with groups such as United Way. Last year, I started a corporate social responsibility program to provide our staff more opportunities to get involved and make a difference. We now give employees an extra day of paid leave annually to participate in community support activities. Community involvement is also an area where Jim Duncan will be spending more time now, too,” he said.

What Sparling has created is a company that provides integrated services that complement each other, said Overton, who was president for four years before becoming president and CEO just over a year ago.

“I feel really good about the position we’re in strategically,” he said. “I believe our clients deserve a collaborative team that pays very close attention to their needs and how they operate their businesses. In fact, what we strive for is that moment when the client is just plain thrilled, what we like to call our ‘wow’ moments. That’s when our clients become our evangelists.”